


History Affects the Future

by Aaronna



Series: Past and Present [1]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adoption, Family Bonding, Hurt/Comfort, Medical Procedures, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, unauthorized use of crafting supplies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-06-10 17:19:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6966109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronna/pseuds/Aaronna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Stanley! What’s wrong?”<br/>“*hissed through clenched teeth* Feels like I just got shivved.”<br/>“Kidney stones shouldn’t be that painful.”<br/>“This ain’t no kidney stone Sixer. *pained hiss*”<br/>“How do you know that?”<br/>“‘Cause I ain’t had a kidney on that side in decades.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Help

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This popped into my head at 3am and I wrote it instead of sleeping that night, so if you see any error just let me know and I will go back and fix them. I hope you enjoy it!

Ford had been keeping a close eye on his twin after he woke him in the middle of the night with his whimpering. Stan seemed fine most of the time, but would occasionally wince when he reached too far the right. Now and then he would rub his side just below the ribs. 

Given the amount of soda he had seen Stan consume over the summer and the location of the pain, Ford assumed that his brother was dealing with the pain of kidney stones. It was the most likely scenario, so he made sure his twin drank more water and ‘forgot’ to purchase any more soda. His assumption was proven wrong six days later when Stan nearly collapsed in pain.

“Stanley! What’s wrong?”

“*hissed through clenched teeth* Feels like I just got shivved.”

“Kidney stones shouldn’t be that painful.”

“This ain’t no kidney stone Sixer. *pained hiss*”

“How do you know that?”

“‘Cause I ain’t had a kidney on that side in decades.”

“WHAT!?”

Stan cringed at the loudness and Ford had the decency to look ashamed. 

“Sorry Stanley. I shouldn’t have yelled like that. It’s just…”

“There’s a lot ‘bout me ya don’t know Sixer, and that ain’t your fault.”

“Right…”

“Gahh! Hot belgian waffles that hurts! This is worse than when my appendix nearly exploded when we were kids.”

That statement really worried Ford. He remembered how much pain this twin had been in before their parents realized it wasn’t just Stan’s latest attempt at getting out of going to school and raced him to the hospital. If this hurt worse, then something was terribly wrong.

“How long has this been going on? I heard you whimpering in your sleep a week ago, but I am guessing that wasn’t when it started.”

“*Pained hiss* It comes and goes, but it’s never been this bad be- *gasp* -fore.”

“When did this start, roughly guessing?”

“1977 or 79? *groans* It has been there so long I couldn’t really tell ya.”

“77… This has been bothering you all of this time and you never had a doctor look at it?”

“*humorless chuckle* Last time I went to a doctor he swiped one of my kidneys and dumped me in an alley. It’s kinda hard to trust someone after something like that.”

Ford didn’t know how to respond to that. He understood why his brother hadn’t back in the days after he was kicked out, but he had lived in Gravity Falls for 30 years. Had there really been no one he trusted in the town to go with him to make sure something like that never happened again?

Then it hit him. He was not only worried about himself, he was worried about leaving the portal uncompleted and unprotected. If whatever this was had needed surgery, there was a fair chance Stan could have died on the table, leaving the Shack to be claimed by the government or the Northwests.

“Why did you tell me about this before? We have been out here for the better part of 8 months.”

“*throught clenched teeth* It had stopped hurtin’ once you got back, so I figured it had been in my head, ya know. Kinda like guilt pains. When it started back it was hardly noticeable. It was after I broke the radio that I realized it was back. It was manageable, so why worry ya?”

Ford sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He could see Stan’s point. He probably would have done the same thing, but that didn’t stop him from wishing that his brother would have told him.

Despite his twin’s whimpers and pained cries, Stanford managed to get Stanley from up on deck down to his bed below. During that time he found out that the pain wasn’t isolated to just Stan’s lower right side, but encompassed his entire abdomen with the worst of it on the side. And while he wasn’t diarrhetic right now, Stan admitted that he usually was and that the Pitt Sodas helped to settle his stomach.

Ford dosed his twin with pain killers before asking if he could examine him. Stan groggily nodded and Ford set to work. He started with a traditional exam, which only brought up more questions. He ended up taking samples of blood and other substances from Stan and testing them as best he could on the Stan-O-War.

He truly wished he had managed to bring the medical scanner he had obtained during his travels, but there was no use dwelling on things you cannot change. He just needed to focus on the medical knowledge he had gained on his travels through the multiverse. He had MD in one dimension and while their anatomy was vastly different from that of a human, he just needed to take what he had learned there and use what he could to help Stan.

After he came up short in his tests, Ford knew the next step would be to gets Stanley’s abdomen CTed, x-rayed, or ultrasounded. He could build the latter two, but is would take him the better part of a week since he would need to get the ship back to shore and take care of Stan at the same time. The best idea was to head to shore and get Stan to an actual hospital to be tested and treated by people who know what to do.

It took three days to reach the Canadian coast and then another two to find a port. It took four of those days to convince Stan that this was the best option. Ford played the ‘free health care’ card first to appeal to his brother’s cheapness, when that failed he admitted that he didn’t know what else to do to help. Bribing didn’t work, logic didn’t phases him, and begging was a lost cause. It wasn’t until he threatened to call the kids that Stan relented.

~/o\~

It took a panic attack from Stan to get the doctors to allow Ford to come with him to the ER and the various scans. One of the main reasons was that during the attack Stan seemed to have an anaphylactic episode that ended with Stan being sedated to keep him calm. Ford filled out the paperwork as best he could and told them everything he knew.

A man as old as the Pines twins not having had a check up in roughly 40 years had the doctors checking Stan over thoroughly for anything and everything. Some of the discoveries were heart wrenching, like the damage to his knees and back that the doctors believed to be from brutal beating over 30 years ago. Others brought a small smile to the author’s face like the fact that despite his brother’s questionable eating habits, his blood pressure, blood sugar, and red counts were well balanced.

Soon enough the tests revealed that Stan had numerous intestinal and invasive tapeworm infections. Cysts from the parasites were found throughout his body and were the cause of the earlier allergic reaction. Surgery was highly recommended and since Stan was sedated, the decision was up to Ford.

After explaining what had happened with the kidney, a plan was devised. They could go in and remove the adult worms and the cysts and then have another surgeon come in and repair the damage to his back while his knees were also seen to. It would take hours, but they would only have to put him under once and it would alleviate a good bit of the discomfort he lived with on a daily basis.

Ford signed off on the procedures and the OR was booked for the next day. They let him sleep in the empty bed in Stan’s room. He didn’t think anything about sleeping in his usual t-shirt and sweatpants until an orderly came in check on Stan and stared at the scars that littered his exposed arms most of the time.

The twins had decided before they left Oragon that they needed a story for the scars. The solution they came up with was that he had been a POW held for years after the Vietnam War and that the US government didn’t acknowledge his service. So when the man asked, Ford had the story ready to go.

Usually after he told them an edited version of the truth, they would feel bad for bring it up and leave him alone. This orderly was different. At the end of the story, instead of apologizing and leaving, he offered to talk with him while Stan was in surgery. Stanford didn’t know know what to think about the offer. The man seemed to take his inability to speak as a yes and left with a “See you tomorrow then.”

~/o\~

Stan’s surgery was scheduled for 8am. After they prepped his brother, he called Gravity Fall. Soos didn’t seem to mind being woken at 5am, but Ford felt bad for waking him up just to worry him with the fact the man he saw as his father was about to be cut open by strangers and have things that have been part of him for 35 years taken out.

After promising to call back when the Man of Mystery was out of surgery, Stanford began pacing the waiting room and letting his mind go over all of the possible outcomes. He had nearly worked himself into a state of paranoia when the orderly from the night before showed up. It took a few minutes to calm down, but the fellow seemed to understand. 

After some calming small talk, Ford was asked if he had eaten yet. His response of “No, but I can’t just leave Stanley. He was scared enough coming here. If he finds out I left him, I could lose his trust all over again.” was countered with “You aren’t abandoning him. You are just taking care of yourself so that you can be there for him when he gets out.”

Ford remembers protesting and explaining his side, but somehow he still ended up in the hospital cafeteria. He grabbed a packaged sandwich, a bottle of water, and an apple, paid for them and attempted to rush back to the waiting room. There was a sad, almost pitying look in the orderly’s eyes when he explained that there was no food allowed up there.

The man got himself a cookie and coffee and settled down at a table near the exit. Ford hesitantly sat down and started downing his sandwich. He hadn’t realized that this was first real meal he had eaten in days. On the Stan-O-War he had been too worried about Stan to eat much and then yesterday had been a bit of a blur. Ford looked up from the core of his apple to see the worry in his companion’s face.

“Dr. Pines, when was the last time you had a full meal?” Ford remembered Wendy asking him a similar question a few days after the Twins went home.

Ford lowered his eyes. “Stan usually does the cooking. Since all of this happened I have just been eating whatever I could grab.”

Ford heard the relieved exhale from across the table. “You two rely a lot on each other don’t you?”

Ford nodded. “He is my twin. After our father kicked him out at 17 he spent 10 years on the street. He trusted me after all of that. He kept my house from being repossessed during my time behind enemy lines. He is the only constant that I have left after nearly 30 years. He worked hard to get me home. And now I have left him alone in one of the places he fears the worst…”

He flinched when a touched his arm. When he realized the appendage in question belonged to the man before him he started to apologize, but was cut off. “You don’t need to say anything. That was entirely on me. I assumed you had gotten used to people, but it is fine that you are not. I need to ask, but you don’t have to answer. I know you avoided telling me in your story, but how long have you been back home after your brother found you?”

Ford stopped himself from telling the exacted number of months, days and hours since Stan reactivated the portal. Instead, he said what Stan told him to. It was the truth, but vague enough that they couldn’t disprove the details. “It will be a year in August.”

The author watched as emotions flickered across the orderly’s face. He recognized a few of them, shock, pity, amazement, and pride, but they rest of them were lost on him. Stan would know, he spent he live needed to.

He had been away from his brother too long now. He was just supposed to eat and head back. It had been nearly half an hour since they had left the waiting room. But if Mabel had taught him anything it was that just walking away from the person you were talking to was in the top 20.

“When was the last time you were checked over by a doctor?” Ford jumped again, but he hid it as best he could. The man was lucky Stan had banned him from bringing his weapons when they left the ship.

“One that knew what they were doing? 1980, give or take half a year. Where I was all this time had people they called doctors, but they knew less than I did. I met a field medic in one of the places I was locked up, but he only help me by being someone to talk to.”

The look was definitely worry and pity this time. It was the same look Wendy gave him when she helped him with the burn Bill had given him. She had done such a good job that they barely even scarred.

“Your brother won’t be able to have visitors for at least 5 more hours. Would you allow someone to make sure you are alright? You don’t have to, you know. But it might be a good idea. It is entirely up to you.”

“I can’t stay away from Stan too long. I promised him.”

“There is an exam room not far from the OR. You would be closer there than you would be in the waiting room and I can let the nurses know where you are if there is any news.”

It was the logical thing to do…

~/o\~

The eleven hours Stan was in surgery were some of the longest Ford could remember. After Andrew, the orderly, talked his into getting checked over, he spent an hour filling out past injury list, including things that might hinder an exam. The plate in his head was actually the easiest to explain. By the time the doctor came in to start the check-up, he was mentally exhausted from all of the half truths and lies he had written to explain his extensive injuries while sticking to his cover story.

The doctor was a young woman who was kind and gentle in her movements while taking his blood pressure and listening to his heart and lungs. She had blood drawn, urine sampled, and for some reason she even took some of his hair. She handed the samples to a lab tech and and asked him to rush the testing, in french, but Ford understood her. 

Something about him had her worried. Was she questioning his story? Was there some way of testing to see if he was really held in Vietnam? Or was there something else?

She pulled his attention back by asking him to remove his shirt. When he hesitated, her soft features seemed to go even softer. The doctor gave him that look that made him feel like when his mother used to chide him. He then did what he would have done if it had been Ma. He quickly removed his sweater and placed it on the table beside him. Looking up. her face looked like he had kicked her.

She spent a good deal of time pairing the injury description in her chart to the marks on his body. She finally finished with that just to send him off for a series of full body x-rays and CT scans, which seemed to take hours. By the time those were done, his doctor seemed to have gotten some of the test results back. 

She seemed very confused by both his scans and and what appeared to be the hair tests. That was when he remembered the heavy metal treatments he had received in his early years in the portal. It removed the harmful particles from the bloodstream and deposited them in in the hair and skin where they could be shed. He just hoped that the metals she was looking at from the lab were terrestrial in origin.

She finally told him he was free to return to the waiting room and that she would come and talk to him when the rest of the tests came back. When he got his sweater back on and got back to the blank room, Andrew was waiting for him with a middle aged and well dressed woman.

Based on his experiences at Backupsmore and the fact that it was Andrew who brought her combined with her attire, Ford assumed she was a psychiatrist. He should have seen this coming. He had been forced to have weekly sessions for his entire freshman year after he had some nightmare about Stan and Pa. Now he was going to have to do this again, and this time he had more baggage than just an abusive father.

A small voice that was clearly Stanley’s voice piped in saying, “Hey, it’s free and you could really use it Poindexter.”

Taking a deep breath, he walked over to greet them. He nodded to Andrew and the turned to the woman as the orderly introduced her. She held out her hand to shake his and his brain seemed to shut down. Memories from his childhood where his extra fingers lead to beating and his and Stan’s deals with Bill flooded his mind.

He mentally slapped himself and shook her hand, but his hesitance had already been noticed. Once Ford relaxed visibly, Andrew excused himself leaving the older pair alone.

“So, Dr. Pines, I hear you fought in Vietnam.”

“No, I server there as a technology expert and code breaker. I wasn’t a soldier.”

“I see. Did you volunteer or were you drafted?”

“I was already on contract with the US government, so when they told me I was going to Asia I had no choice.”

“Interesting. Did your captors know this?”

“Those in charge likely did, but the grunts seemed to think I was just another GI.”

“Were you treated like the others?”

“Being unique is a curse as often as as it is a blessing. Being a polydactyl seemed to make most of the men believe I was a devil.”

“Your hand have always set you apart, caused you to be persecuted. Is that why you were reluctant to shake hands?”

“It contributed. And no, my hands seemed to be a gift until the 4th grade. Even in college it gained me a true friend.”

“Did your friend keep in touch after you parted ways?”

“He was working with me when both of us were sent to the war zone. He got sent home after having a mental break down. He went insane for years, but he was getting better when I finally got back.”

“Were you alone during those years?”

“Mostly. It was easier that way. It was too painful to let yourself get attached to someone only for them to be taken away.”

“It must have been hard.”

“It was a living hell at first, then it was like the place of atonement in the Catholic teachings.”

“I take it you are not a religious man.”

“I was as a child, but my father killed those beliefs before the rest of the world could.”

“I can see you have resentments towards your father. Why is that?”

“The man was nasty piece of work. He wanted a son, but when he received two, he decided that the second one was just dead weight, an extra mouth to feed. Me and my brother were both given the name Stan. Luckily our Mother managed to add ‘ford’ to the end of my name and ‘ley’ to the end of my brother’s. Growing up the second child was treated like trash and was constantly on the receiving end of Pa’s temper.”

“I take it you were the younger twin, the extra.”

“No. I am the elder by 7 minutes. I was the golden child. I could do no evil in our father’s eyes and if I did fall short, he still blamed Stan.”

“Your twin is the one who found you yes? I can imagine that happy reunion.”  
“Far from it. I punched him right in the face for endangering those who help him get to me. I blamed him for what had happened to me. He had accidently caused me to lose my chance at a free ride at my dream school. Because of that I ended working for the government to pay off my student loans. It took our little brother’s grandchildren to finally work out our issues with each other.”

“‘with each other.’ Did your brother have a problem with you before the war?”

“The accident that cost me the education a yearned for cause our father to kick him out into the streets two months before graduation. He blamed me for not standing up for him, for leaving him on his own for over a decade. I called him up to house sit for me while I was in Asia. We had a huge fight before I was sent out. He blamed himself for my disappearance and that was what fueled him to find me.”

“You two seem to be on better terms now.”

“I was the one who held a grudge, If he hadn’t nearly gotten himself killed last summer, I might never have forgiven him. That was when I realized just how much I needed him, how much I had missed being twins. Then he had to go and scare me like this. And I could have saved him all of this if I had just listened to him that night.”

“You blame yourself for his current condition, why?”

“I noticed he was having issues, but I wrote it off. When he practically collapsed from the pain I knew I had been too narcissistic to see what was right in front of me. I never even asked him about those ten years.”

She placed a comforting hand on his wrist and his brain shut down and his body reacted. He didn’t remember how it happened, but he ended up having a panic attack on top of the vending machine. Without Stan or one of the twins to ground him, it took the better part of an hour for him to calm down. 

At some point during that time, Andrew appeared and tried to help. The doctor came in and dissuaded the idea of a sedative. It wasn’t until they all left the room that he started to calm down.

Once he finally had a hold of himself he apologized, but they all told him it wasn’t his fault. They brought him a snackbar and even let him eat it the waiting room. He barely finished the food before his body rebelled against his treatment of it and he ended up napping on the couch.

He slept for less than an hour before a nightmare woke him. Andrew was surprised to see Ford awake when he popped his head into check on him. The doctor came in not long later and explained his condition to him.

He had an arrhythmia, likely due to either the electrocutions he had been through, his Vitamin deficiency anemia, or a combination of the two. He had high heavy metal levels in his hair samples, but his other tests for them came up clean. In addition to that he also had PTSD. 

They asked if he would be willing to be hooked up to a portable heart monitor for the next three days while they corrected his B-12 levels to see if that cleared up his irregular heart rhythm. He was also prescribed something to help with his panic attacks and other PTSD symptoms. 

The sensor pads for the monitor felt like tentacles against his chest. This lead to a smaller episode of panic. This one was brought to a halt by a voice.

“Dr. P! Dude, calm down. Can you hear me?”

“Wendy?”

“Yep! That’s me! You’ve got some people worried. They called the Shack for Soos, but he was out giving the tour on the golf cart train. So they got me instead. Not that Soos would have been good at this, he’d probably panic too. He has been worried about Mr.Pines all day.”

“I shouldn’t have worried him.”

“Hey, we would have been mad if you hadn’t told us. We almost closed shop and drove up there, but Soos couldn’t remember where in Canada you guys were and he couldn’t call you back afterwards because he called to let me know. We can still come if that is alright?”

“Stan would not like the loss of profit.”

“Dude, it’s Spring. This is an off season. We have only had like four customers in the past two weeks. It’ll be fine.”

“Do you know where Stan hid the emergency travel money? If you catch a small plane out of Oregon you might get here by the time Stan can have visitors.”

“Dude, who do you think gave him the idea have the travel money? We will be there before you know it.”

The Author gave his location and wished them smooth travels. Ford continued to stare at the phone in his hands even after Wendy was no longer on the other end. Movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and turn to see what it was at a speed that only hard ingrained survival instincts could give you. Andrew jumped back at the older man’s sudden movements.

“Are you alright Dr. Pines? Who was that?”

“Her name in Wendy Corduroy. She is the closest thing Stan has to a daughter. She has been there for us since I got back.”

“She seemed to know what to do. When I told her what was going on she immediately took charge.”

Ford couldn’t stop the fond smile from spilling out across his face. “She is one of the coolest headed gingers I have ever encountered. Unless you are a threat to her friends, then you face the wrath of a teenaged lumberjack.”

This comment seemed to be the end of the subject. After that Andrew took Ford to eat some lunch and told him about himself. He explained how his grandfather had been a flight controller in WWII and how he had been a POW for three years in an Italian prison, which explained the orderly’s understanding.

After that Ford settled in the waiting room and buried himself in work in his newest journal. He didn’t realize when he shifted from documenting the migration paths of the Arctic Selkie to sketching the prison camp he had liberated a decade ago. It was similar to what might have been used on earth in appearance, but that was the only way.

If he had consciously drawn the image he would realized that Andrews tale had brought up the memory of the camps on the other side of the portal. The correlation was uncanny if one thought about it, but Stanford Pines was lost in the drawing process. That was why he didn’t notice Soos and Wendy walk in.

~/o\~

The redhead took one look at the the author and maneuvered her friend/new boss back out of the room. If they started the older man right now they were risking a third panic attack in a single day. She knew how much one of those took out of him and she wasn’t going to be the cause of one.

Instead, she pointed out the nearest vending machine and dared Soos to use his trick on it. She doubted it would work, but it would give her time to get updates on both of the twins from that guy nurse who had called the Shack. She pulled out her phone and called him up.

She got as far “Hi, this is Wendy Corduroy” before he asked how far she was from the hospital. It was less than 5 minutes later that he showed up. The man was in his late 30s to early 40s, was a little taller than her, he had blondish brown hair that was cut short, and he had caring hazel eyes. All of her time with mr. Pines had taught her how to read people and this guy seemed to be on the level.

She let him bring her up to speed on how Ford was doing before she bombarded him with questions about the brothers. She asked if they had made sure Ford knew where the nearest bathroom was when he finally realized he needed it, she made sure that all of Stan’s drug allergies had been given, she even asked if Stan had signed off power of attorney to Ford or if it was still in Soos’s name. That last question stirred up a big issue as Ford had been the one to sign off on all of the testing and treatment options. 

Andrew seemed shocked when Wendy asked to see the forms and then asked for a form that allowed Soos to give Ford the legal grounds to make the medical calls. She then made sure that there was no times placed on the documents before predating Soos’s consent form. She may be a 16 year old girl, but she had been working for Mr. Pines for years. She knew how to manipulate paperwork. This was easy as it was only one day, not the months and years she usually dealt with.

Once she had that issue taken care of, she decided to let Ford know they had gotten to Quebec. She did it the only way she knew wouldn’t startle the man. She had them start talking about Soos’s reaction to flying the first time starting a good distance as they approached the waiting room. By the time they entered, Ford had put away his work and was halfway to the door to greet them.

Ford asked how they had managed to make a 2 hour drive and then a 7 hour flight is less than 7 hours. That lead to a story about how Old Man McGucket had bought himself a jet that he then modified and how they had been favored with a strong tailwind. Wendy told the author and orderly about Soos’s reaction to the colorful currency and the cab ride. 

It was nearly eight o’clock by the time the story was over. They started discussing sleeping arrangements when the surgeon walked in in his scrubs. The man told them that all three procedures went smoothly and that in about an hour they could each visit him, but only one at a time.

~/o\~

Stanley Pines woke to the smell of disinfectant and the sound of magazine pages being flipped. It took him a bit to get his foggy brain to open his eyes. Sitting in a chair at his bedside was Wendy in a familiar white and blue ball cap, reading one of her tabloids with her feet resting on the bedside table. A smile formed on his face and he let himself drift back into sleep.

The next time he woke up was when a nurse or someone was changing his IV. He assumed that whatever was in that dip was the good stuff as none of his usual old man pains seemed to be bothering him. He kept his eyes shut and waited for the person to leave. By the time the nurse finally did leave, Stan had fallen back to sleep.

The third time he woke to whispered conversation. 

“Dr. Pines, visiting hours for this ward end at 11pm, it is 11:30. We have been lenient, but you have to leave now.”

“You told me he could wake up at anytime. If his first sight is some stranger with a needle, I doubt anyone will like the outcome.”

Stan could hear the tension in the air and he didn’t doubt Ford would do something stupid if this guy didn’t stop pushing the subject. Stan gave an amused huff at the thought of of his brother punching a doctor in the face.

The was eerily silent for a moment as the huff turned into a low chuckle. 

“Stanley?”

Stan opened his eyes to see his brother hovering at his bedside. “Sorry, I just thought about you socking that guys one. It just gets funnier.”

Ford smiled. It was a relieved and happy smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter two is half written and depending on how that goes there might be a third chapter.  
> If you have any suggestions, let me know. I am more than glad for ideas.


	2. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family bonding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Partially inspired by Just A Name by thesnadger.

The next two weeks were a blur of physical therapy, scans, and special diets for Stan and counseling, tests, and pill regimens for Ford combined with visits from Wendy and Soos and calls from people all over Gravity Falls and later, the twins and their parents. They rarely had a moment to themselves. By the time Stan checked out of the hospital, the brothers were exhausted from the attention.

May was half over by this time and it was nearly time for the younger twins to be getting out of school. Their nephew and niece-in-law offered for them to stay for part of the summer in their house in Piedmont with the kids while Stan recovered and then both sets of twins take the bus to Oregon after Stan’s 6 weeks of precautionary time for his knees was up. It was a tough decision for the Stan twins.

As much as they wanted to get back out in the Stan-O-War, they both knew this was a good opportunity to get to really know their remaining family. After agreeing, the group flew back to Gravity Falls, where Wendy and Soos were dropped off before the jet took the Stans to the San Francisco International Airport. Their nephew picked them up at a quarter to midnight.

Dipper and Mabel knew their Grunkles were going to spend the beginning of Summer with them, but they didn’t know when they were arriving. That was why there was a good bit of caution when they got to the house. The guest bedroom was ready and half decorated by Mabel and half by Dipper. Stan smiled at the sight of the golf club sitting beside his bed and night vision goggles on the table beside Ford’s. 

~/o\~

The younger Pines twins woke up like they usually did. They got ready for school before heading down to breakfast. That was as far as the day was to usual. They walked into the kitchen expecting to see their dad making eggs while their mother organized her work satchel, instead they saw their Grunkle Stan in his hawaiian shirt making pancakes while Grunkle Ford leaned against the refrigerator, sketching their parents on one of Mabel’s numerous coloring pads.

Ford didn’t even flinch when his great niece squealed and tackled him with a hug. He had been expecting it. He had been expecting Dipper too, but the boy had run past him and began crying into Stan’s shirt.

Mabel and Ford couldn’t hear what Dipper was saying other than the words “sorry”, “Tambry”, and “promise”, but they saw the affect it had on Stan. His face softened and tears formed in his eyes. Ford suspected that his brother would have squatted down and wrapped the boy in a hug if his back and knees would allow him.

Four sets of eyes watched as Dipper grabbed a chair and helped his Grunkle cook pancakes. They could see the need in the boy’s face to be near the man, so they all settled down at the table. Mabel chose to sit in Ford’s lap and cuddle into his sweatered chest.

~/o\~

Life became a great deal better for the entire Pines family after the older twins came into their lives. Dipper became more confident, outgoing, while still staying true to himself. Mabel was doing better in school and accepted that she was odd, but didn’t let it bother her. Both of the younger twins parents enjoyed that their skin was always super soft after Ford replaced all of the lightbulbs in the house.

Stan’s back and knees where better than ever by the time Summer was in full swing. Not only that, but his entire body seemed to de-age 10 years in those two months now that he was free of constant pain and nutrient sucking parasites and his cataracts were well on their way to being a thing of the past. On top of that, he was well on his way losing ‘Mr. Tummy’ now that he was eating proper meals he and the girls liked to prepare.

Ford hadn’t known how much he had needed the caringness of his family until he had it. His nightmares faded to simple bad dreams, his paranoia was easily dialed back, and he no longer flinched away from physical contact. If anything, he now thrived on it thanks to Mabel’s innumerable hugs.

By the time they set off for Gravity Falls, the Stan boys were hardly recognizable to those who hadn’t witnessed the transformation as it had happened. Andrew had kept in touch, and was shocked at the weekly photos of the Stan twins. Ford finally got a haircut and with the new found ability to sleep through the night, he looked like a completely new person and he had Stan finally looked the same age again.

When the four of them got off the bus Stanley had the time of his life messing with the towns folk. The Gleefuls were exceptionally fun since no one had bothered to tell Bud and Lil’ Gideon that the man they had been messing with for years was actually Stanley Pines, not Stanford. Mrs. Gleeful seemed to know, but she just gave a tiny smile and returned to vacuuming.

This was especially amusing when the albino midget managed to anger not only Ford, but Dipper and a large portion of the town by yelling “I hate you Stanford Pines and this is far from over, believe me!” on the sidewalk outside his house. The kid was scared stiff when he realized, thanks to Dipper, that he had just ticked off the Author of the Journals twice over. He was so startled that he didn’t even try to laugh it off for the towns folks like he usually would.

~/o\~

Wendy still had trouble with her boss looking the same as he had been when he used to take care of her and brothers after her mom died. Her dad had been a mess and worked almost all the time after it happened, so they had practically lived with ‘Uncle Stan’ for awhile. Looking at Mr. Pines now brought back the pain of loss and the love she had felt back then. Her former boss didn’t seem to mind when she got teary eyed and called him Uncle Stan now and then, he would give her a one armed hug and a smile. It only felt weird when Dipper was there to see it.

The little dude seemed to cling to Mr. Pines the entire Summer. Wendy understood how he felt. The poor kid had learned that his Grunkle Stan was in the hospital from a mass text from Tambry, who had found out when she texted to find out why Wendy hadn’t come to school on Monday. 

The poor guy hadn’t had any real proof that Mr. Pines was fine until he showed up at their house out in California. Sure, Dipper had talked to him on the phone, but the kid had also seen both of the old Pines twins talk in the other’s voice a number of times and even if it really was him, he was known for his lying. So she didn’t blame kid at all for wanting a constant reminder that Mr. Pines was alright.

This wasn’t lost on the original Mr. Mystery either. Wendy saw the sad looks her old boss sent at the kid at the beginning of the Summer. She knew that was why he always found things for him and Dipper to do together. Fixing the Stanley Mobile, boxing, and hiking out in the woods to ‘hunt for treasure’, which Wendy had known from the start was just letting Dipper explore and fill his journal with new stuff while Mr. Pines made sure nothing stuck up on his distracted nephew.

And it wasn’t like Dipper was the only clingy one. Mabel had found out about Dr. P’s panicking issue, despite his attempts to hide it. She had known he was taking medication, but she hadn’t known what it was for until she had walked in on the man in the middle of a fit. From then on she made it her mission to help him.

She was just what he needed to stop jumping when there was a loud noise or when someone suddenly showed up near him. She was also really good at stopping an attack when they happened. Wendy didn’t know the details of how, but if Mr. Pines and Soos’s reactions were any clue, she was amazing at it.

~/o\~

Soos wasn’t the type to get jealous, but with Dipper dominating all of Stan’s time, the poor man-child really felt left out. Over the previous Summer he had been there for the both of them and now he was just in the way. He understood why Dipper was spending so much time with the man, but Soos needed it too.

Mr. Pines was the closest thing he had to a father and he had been terrified he was going to lose him. After The Other Mr. Pines had called, he had nearly panicked. He had had that same feeling when Stan hadn’t recognized him after Weirdmageddon. Now he had Mr. Pines back and the little dude was keeping them apart.

What he didn’t know was that the pair were making secret plans for Soos’s birthday. They had gotten his Abuelita’s permission and had gone through all of the legal channels to do it. They had managed to get all of the paperwork in order for Stan to adopt Soos. Only the three of them knew about it, not even Mabel or Wendy knew what they were up to.

On July 13th, Soos got the thing he had always wanted for his birthday. His dad not only showed up, but there was a party that the whole town was invited to. The only difference was that this wasn’t just the dad he had thought of all those years ago. That wasn’t a bad thing. In fact, it was just another wish of his to come true.

While a new name was the best present he received, it definitely wasn’t the only one. Dipper wrote a bunch of Pterodactyl Bros fan fictions for Soos and turned them into a series comic book with illustrations and everything. Mabel knitted him a red sweater with a green T-Rex holding an American flag and two stars on it. Ford found a bunch of interesting looking rocks, flowers, and fire lizard scales that he gave to Soos in case he wanted to use them for making attractions. Wendy didn’t really give Soos a gift, per se. She got herself some noise canceling headphones from McGucket and told Soos he could listen to all the Summer hits he wanted.

All in all, it was a great day for all of them, even after He showed up. No one knew who he was at first. The Shack was closed for the day, but the man showed up looking every bit a tourist in his green lime patterned hawaiian type shirt, blue swimming trunks, and heavy sunburn. They would have just shooed him off if Abuelita hadn’t showed and started ranting at the man in Spanish.

Luckily, Soos was distracted by the gifts from various citizens of the town to notice the Stan twins usher the arguing pair away from the party. He did notice when the two of the escorted his grandmother over to the food table and helped her unpack the food she had been cooking all morning in the Shack kitchen wearing massive grins. He didn’t know what had the three of them so happy, but he was glad that his old family and his new one got along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah omwv qig pmuf'n sqx kzy dqjvjyzoi, Jgie'e hrv ce flv Awq Ovvsg Ymr wjiy Xmcg uzp Wkanot. Me lbq FZ jwluqw yw qqmvj lbq elzjn U pijuluniu. Ghoq qp eczp tralqp xyw nia yg, A wagpuf'n gzwvw cf.
> 
> The first person to decode my message gets a wish for this series that I will try my hardest to fulfill.
> 
> Also, any suggestions for chapter 3 are welcome.


	3. Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stan's life of crime leads to some unpleasant events. BAMF/Feral Ford.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to Ann Onymous who gave me inspiration for this chapter.

The summer was over too quickly for everyone. The kids had to go back to school, tourist season wound to a close, and the Stans headed back to Quebec to get the Stan-O-War II ready for the waves. Hugs were given, promises given, and advice exchanged.

McGucket offered to have the twins flown back to Canada, but they declined and took the scenic route back to their ship. They rented a car and drove through parts of Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and into Michigan before meeting trouble near the Canadian border, crossing the Black River towards U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Ford had been asleep when it started, but when the shots began flying, he was woke up fast with his heart pounding in his ears.

“Stanley?!”

“Ford! Stay down!”

“What’s going on?!”

“Apparently I look enough like I did 30 years ago for them to recognize me. These guys must have been sent by one of my old buddies. I am so sorry Poindexter. They must have seen me at the gas station back in Flint.”

“But why are they shooting?!”

“Sixer! Calm down and buckle up! If we can just make it to the U.S. Border Protection station we should be good. Just buckle up already!”

As soon as Ford’s seat belt clicked, Stan floored the gas pedal. Ford was pressed back into the seat by the sudden acceleration. Looking to side, the author saw a sign stating the speed limit was 65 mph while Stan was driving at 90 with the gunmen right on their tails. 

Ford only attempted to catch a glimpse of the people after them once and that was enough. The moment their sedan was visible to him, a bullet came through the back window and out the windshield. As the front window shattered, Ford hunkered down and tightened the strap across his lap.

They were in sight of the the Border Protection compound when one of the back tires was shot out. Stan’s reaction must have been the wrong one as they started to spiral and then somehow managed to flip over and roll. They didn’t hit any cars, thank goodness, but the car was wrecked and their pursuers would be on them at any second. Ford undid his restraint and turned his attention to his brother. 

Stan was barely awake, his face was covered it tiny, but heavily bleeding, cuts from shards of glass, his left elbow was clearly dislocated, and his neck was showing signs of severe bruising. The worst part was that his seat belt was stuck. Ford wrestled with the stubborn strap until he heard two doors slam. The sound came from the direction of their pursuers. 

The author looked around for something he could use for a weapon until Stan groggily pointed out the knitting supplies Mabel had given them. All he had to work with was a half made scarf, three sets of needles, and five skeins of brightly colored yarn. They weren’t the best, but they would do.

Ford quickly tied the the smaller, sharper pair of needles to a ball of yarn and unwound a few yards of it as he climbed out of the wreckage of the rental car, the other supplies tucked into his coat. He ducked behind the twisted metal and peered over the edge to see two men walking toward him. One wore khakis and a plaid shirt and held a bat, but there was a knife in his boot and a gun in his belt. The other was in jeans and a t-shirt and his gun at the ready.

Taking a deep breath, Stanford Pines threw a bundle of neon green yarn at the two men who looked to be part of the Mexican Cartel. The one with the gun shoot the skein twice before the other one hit it away with his bat. Their confusion at the seemingly harmless projectile gave Ford the opening he needed to attack.

With a guttural growl, Ford leaped over the tail end of the smashed vehicle and threw the thread bound spikes at his adversaries. The force at which he threw them was enough for the sharp tips to break skin. Without stopping, the author reeled in the weapons in and swung them back. 

Luck was on Stanford's side, as the one with his gun drawn seemed to have emptied his clip and was forced to draw his knife as the raging genius descended upon the pair. The one in plaid didn't have a chance to draw his gun as Ford ripped the bat out of his hand, but he did manage to grab his knife. Faced with two men with blades, an unhinged grin formed on the older man's face.

Ford was so high on adrenaline that he never even felt the hits or the lacerations dealt to him, but the two Latinos felt what they were hit with. The stab of knitting pins into tender flesh, pressure points smashed into with the butt of the crafting spike, the feeling of the individual stitches of the scarf wrapped around their neck. As long as they lived, those two men would never forget the feeling of getting their blades wrenched from their grasp with a bundle of yellow yarn.

In the end, the aggressors ended up tangled in four different colors of string, covered in bruises, cuts, and puncture wounds, on the ground at the point of their own guns. They had been taken down, not by the target they had been warned was highly dangerous, but by that man’s brother who came into the fight already injured and with only craft supplies as weapons. When the police arrived, the only thing the two gangsters would say was, “Hombres con el nombre Pines están locos y peligrosos”

~/o\~

When asked about it later, the scientist would admit that he barely remembered what all that he did during that fight. He vaguely remembered stabbing a denimed leg with a very blunt and narrow piece of metal that actually embedded itself there, a plaid collar as he pulled an unraveling scarf tightly to the man’s neck, having both men at gunpoint when the people from the customs area arrived, and rushing back to his brother and staying with him until the police and emergency response vehicles arrived. He hazily remembers pain across his abdomen and passing out as soon as Stan was free of the remains of the car and nothing else.

Stan on the other hand remembered the entire thing. He had watched in the rear view mirror as his brother seemed to turn into a wild animal as he fought the the two gangsters. Feral was the only word Stan could find to describe it. He had been forced to call out to his twin to keep him from attacking the people who had come to help. He had seen the terrified look in Ford’s eyes when he sat beside him until the firemen cut the seat belt. 

His stomach still dropped when he thought about the way his brother had hugged his own waist and crumpled as soon as he was freed from the wreck. He had been the one to explain what had happened in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, filled out the paperwork, and called Soos, the kids, and Wendy to let them know about what had happened. He had been the one who gave them permission to take Ford into surgery to deal with his nasty stab wound. None of which he would ever forget.

~/o\~

When Stanford woke up, he found himself back in Canada. For a man who prides himself on his cognitive abilities, it was frustrating to not know how he got there. He and Stan had been in Michigan when they crashed, so they would have been taken to the nearest US hospital. Yet here he was, staring at Canadian television, with a roommate who spoke in nothing but French, and all of the medical equipment had little maple leaves on them. 

His assumption that he was proved correct when Andrew walked in wearing his scrubs.

“Hello Dr. Pines. Nice to see you are finally awake.” 

“This may seen odd, but how did I get from Michigan to Quebec? Also, how is Stanley? He seemed concussed and had extensive bruising.”

Andrew smiled and held in a laugh. “Your brother is fine. He is recovering well from his injuries. He is currently with two very worried children and their parents. I don’t know how he pulled it, but he got you and himself repatriated from Mercy Hospital to Hotel Dieu de Québec and then again back here.”

“The twins are here? Can I see them?”

“Sure thing Dr. Pines.”

~/o\~

Stan was exhausted. His head was a never ending source of pain, his face itched from all of the small cuts he had on it, and his neck and chest was throbbing purple mess. It had been three days since the chase and subsequent crash, but he hurt more now than he did then, but he didn’t say anything.

The whole thing had been his fault. He hadn’t wanted to fly again, so he had convinced Ford for them to drive back to their ship. Then it had been his past that had led those goons to running them down, which ended in Ford having to fight the guys and got stabbed in the gut. Heck! It had been him who had told them they could put his brother under, and Ford almost didn’t pull through that since he had had a bad reaction to the ether or whatever they used. 

He had once again caused his twin pain. Three -no, four- times he had had done this to Stanford. The Project, the Portal, leaving him to be tortured by Bill, and now the mob hit. Ford deserved better than this. So if he was in pain, good. He deserved it for all of the crappy things he had put his brother through.

He wasn’t going to complain, he had had worse. Not in 30 years, other than the buggers in his guts, but he wasn’t going to let on. This was his punishment and he was going to take it like a man.

~/o\~

Andrew wasn’t blind, but Mr. Pines never seemed to notice him. Unlike his brother, Stanley didn’t know him and seemed to assume he was just another nurse. That gave him an unique view of the man.

While his family was around, he seemed fine, happy even, but when they had their backs turned or he was alone, he let the facade down. Andrew saw this a lot with ex-cons and former druggies. It was clear that he was in pain, but he seemed to think that was fine. He had been there during the man’s rehab and knew that he let everyone know what pains he had and where, but not this time.

Which made sense from what he knew about the man. If it was about him, he was open, probably because of Wendy and Soos reporting back to his brother. This time however, it was Stanford who they were here for and he didn’t want to pull attention from him. Dr. Pines had done basically the same thing, yet this seemed different.

As he had done with the older twin, Andrew decided to offer to be a willing ear. Stanley didn’t have to take him up on it, but the orderly hoped he would take the help offered. But then again, the man had trust issues according to everyone he had talked to.

~/o\~

Ford noticed right after he woke up with the twins no longer in his hospital bed with him that he still hadn’t seen his brother. Considering how badly Stan had hovered after finding out what all Bill had done to him during his captivity, this was worrying. There were only two reasons he could think of for this, either Stan was too badly injured to visit and Andrew and the kids were hiding the fact or Stan was blaming himself for what happened like when Ford himself had back when Lee had gotten his arm broken protecting him when they were kids.

The injuries one barely held water as a theory. A, because Andrew had no reason to not tell him, B, Dipper and Mabel would have seemed more worried and would have likely taken turns where one of them were with one of their Grunkles at all times, and C, Stan and the twins would have requested that the two of them share a room instead of Ford sharing with a man you had been injured driving a snowmobile under a moose. This left Stan blaming himself, which rarely ended well.

He could ask his brother to come, but that would be more of a punishment. He couldn’t ask the twins, who are too young to have to deal with this., or their parents and Andrew, since his brother barely knows them, to pass Stan the message to stop blaming himself. That also eliminated Soos, because Ford didn’t want to upset his new nephew. There was only one choice left. Wendy.

~/o\~

“Hey. You have reached the Mystery Shack.”

“Hello Wendy, this is Stanford.”

“Dr, Pines! Are you alright? Last I heard you were still out after your reaction to the anesthesia.” 

“My what? What happened?”

“Didn’t Stan tell you? You like almost died from what they used to knock you out with to fix the hole in your side. Mr. and Mrs. Pines were telling Soos how bad it had scared everyone there.”

“No one said anything… In fact, Stan is why I called. He has been avoiding seeing me while I am awake and I surmise it is due to guilt over the the collision and skirmish. This new information just solidifies my hypothesis.”

“Dude, I only understood like, half of that. So you are saying Stan blames himself for the crash and fight that landed you in the hospital and is steering clear of you when you are awake? Sounds about right. I am guessing you want me to tell him it wasn’t his fault.”

“In a nutshell.”

“I’ll try, but he is Mr. Pines, the most stubborn person I know. But in a way, he is kinda to blame.”

“How so? He didn’t know they would see him and pursue us. How does any of the blame fall on him?”

“Are you serious? Dude, he was the one too afraid to fly again. The Crash. The guys were after him. The Fight. He told them to fix you up. You almost died. He has reasons for believing he caused this.”

“I… I never thought about it quite like that… I don’t blame him for those things. He has always had acrophobia, it is irrational and virtually unavoidable. He was trapped in the car, defenceless. I wasn’t going to let them hurt him. And there was no way for him to know I would have an adverse reaction to the anesthesia. I didn’t even know that would happen. He had no control over any of this so why should he be blamed for an… Oh.”

“Dr. P? What is it? You still there?”

“I know why he blames himself. I should have thought about it before.”

“Care to share, dude?”

“Our father always blamed Stanley when I got hurt when we were kids, and later I did too. That incident with my project had been an accident, yet I blamed him for it for 40 years… He thinks I will hate him for causing me to get injured.”

“You don’t hate him though.”

“That is true, but he doesn’t know that. He and I haven’t talked since right after the police arrived back in Michigan.”

“So, now you want me to convince my ex-boss that no one blames him for what happened AND to go talk to you?”

“If you could.”

“*sigh* I really don’t get paid enough for some of this stuff…”

“Thank you Wendy.”

“Yeah yeah…”

~/o\~

Stan hesitated going into his brother’s room. He knew that Wendy hadn't been lying to him, but that doesn’t mean Ford hadn’t lied to her without her not having noticed. As soon as those thoughts went through his mind, something Wendy had said chased it away. 

“He cares too much about you to be mad about this. He didn’t ask Dipper or Mabel, heck he didn’t even ask their parents, he asked me to convince you. He called me because he was worried.”

Walking in, Stanford’s loony roommate looked up and held a finger to his lips and pointed his thumb at Ford’s curtained off section. Stan nodded and quietly walked over to his brothers bed. When he got there he peeked around it to see his twin fast asleep.

He had tried to come when he thought Ford would be awake, but apparently he had been wrong. He turned to leave only to hear a quiet whimper come from his twin. Over the past year, Stan had gotten used to how his brother slept, and Ford only whimpers when he is having a nightmare. And most of those nightmares ended with his shooting up in bed, but that would aggravate the stab wound.

Reaching out, Stanley Pines gently stroked his older brothers hair like their mother used to do when they were sick and whispered reassurances. It took a few moments but it seemed to work and the tension in Ford’s body that Stan hadn’t even noticed evaporated and a small smile appeared on his sleeping face. The conman felt a copy of that look form on his own face. 

The look of contentment faded when the moment the two broke contact, Ford tensed back up. Stan laid his hand on his twins and he relaxed again. Sighing in mock indignance, the man of mystery sat in the bedside chair, making sure his hand stayed on his brother’s. Like that he fell asleep, hand in hand with his brother.

~/o\~

Ford woke up to a loud snore, one he would know anywhere. Looking to the side he saw Stanley sleeping half in the visitor's chair and half on the hospital bed. Since this was the first time he had seen his brother in over three days, he let his gaze wander his twin’s unconscious form.

Stan’s face was pinched with pain, which seemed to pull at the multiple butterfly bandages there. The bruises on his neck and collarbone area were red and purple with greeny-yellow in spots. His left elbow was in a brace and was still swollen.  
Everyone kept telling him that Stanley was fine, but he now had proof to the contrary. It was clear to the author that his brother, despite being deeply asleep, was still in enough discomfort for someone who prides themselves on their high threshold for pain to have it showing in his countenance. But where was the pain causing this coming from? There were plenty injuries that could account for it.

Ford attempted to lift his hand to brush Stan’s hair out of his face only to find it weighed down by his brother’s. Warmth flooded the scientist at the sight. He didn’t understand why his twin had initiated the contact, but the fact that he had made him love Lee just that much more. It was that hand that made Ford promise himself that he would make sure Stan got the help he needed, even if he had to guilt trip him into getting it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where would you guys like this story to go from here? I am completely open to suggestions as long as you aren't asking that I kill someone off. I draw the line there.


End file.
